Here's a lot of 1950s-60s nostalgic swag for a single panel cartoon about a nutso kid with ADD!

Johnny C.'s A Hole in the Head blog (one of my favorite blogs) highlights Dennis the Menace Songs, a 75rpm record from Golden Records that sold for 29 cents back in the day. You got 2 songs to listen to: the DTM theme, as well as an ode to his firearms: a song titled simply "Ka-Pow! Ka-Pow! Ka-Pow!"

When I first saw the Webcomic series ZIP & LI'L BIT "The Upside Down Me," I was really impressed. "Who is this Trade Loeffler guy who drew all this amazing stuff???" I thought to myself. I fired off a fan e-mail to Trade. And Trade answered back!

Within a couple of emails, we found out we both lived in Brooklyn, and we were just a couple blocks away from each other! So, we started hanging out, having some beers, stopping by Rocketship to say hey to Alex. I miss seeing Trade around the neighborhood since moving away (and Rocketship, and all those pubs), but I can always check out Trade's great work online.

Beginning this fall, he's been doing writing some behind the scenes, informative "how I draw what I draw" background. Trade is a meticulous guy. He was showing me roughs of the current adventure, The Sky Kayak, last winter. Here are some of his insights into the process:

Another couple of inches fell last night, which makes it near 2 feet of snow so far this winter. Above is my snow blower eye view of our place in the woods, around 9am this morning, with our long, long driveway half-way blowed. It take about 3-4 passes of the snowblower to clear the driveway; about 10-15 minutes at most.

Save some money for some of these STAR TREK items coming in Spring 2008! Above: the CAPTAIN KIRK"S GUIDE TO WOMEN book, creepy looking "mini-mate" dolls, and an art book of THE SHATNER SHOW, a Calgary gallery art show relating to "The Shat."

When I was a kid, I read what's called "The Galactus Trilogy" in a giant size reprint book of the FANTASTIC FOUR. Galactus was a super-bad guy. A name to be feared. The Voldemort of the Marvel Universe!

And now some dang toy company has made a bonehead item: Cute Galactus. It's just wrong wrong wrong.

Some of these are short films, mostly produced by the Weston Woods company, of classic children's books like LENTIL or WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE. When I was a kid, these are the kinda movies that we watched in class, or maybe saw on Captain Kangaroo. The camera pans over the illustrations, with a narrator reading the text. Nothing fancy. These are charming and I'm enjoying the camera languishing over some beautiful watercolors on TIME OF WONDER by Robert McCloskey, a book I haven't even thought about in a couple of decades.

"David Michaelis said in an interview that he couldn’t decide if Sparky had been happy his last 25 years. All he had to do was ask. The last two years of Sparky’s life were measurably different from the years leading up to them, as Sparky didn’t always feel well those last two years and the pressures on him from fans and business were a tremendous stress. But the 25 years I knew him he loved to laugh and tease, and did a lot of both."

There are links to more family members' reactions as well.

Michaelis's book, and the PBS American Masters special, for which Michaelis acted as consultant, follow the template that Schulz was a cold man, who felt empty/bitter because he could not show his love. The family has disputed this, as well as many of the factual details in the book, a major Holiday release from Harper Books.

To paraphrase a vice presidential debate: Well, Mr. Michaelis, these people KNEW Schulz. I agree with Mark Evanier, who also picked this up today, when he commented that the author is on thin ice.

But -- uh -- Spock's Mom in one of the hotties? Eew. Dude, she deserves a little respect, huh?

But you overlooked my favorite:

Unless I missed it, Zarabeth from ALL OUR YESTERDAYS, needs to be part of this! A crime, Polettti! Please deem fit to add Mariette Hartley's character to the roster. And, if I may be so nerdy hardcore ("nerdcore"), The Companion from METAMORPHOSIS should, technically, be on the list.

Gag cartoonist, illustrator and children's book auteur Syd Hoff has a shiny new Web site devoted to the man and his many, many works. The site is the result of a lot of hard work by Syd's niece, Carol Edmonston. I've barely had enough time to look at all the terrific, preciously unseen material at this site. Thanks, Carol!

Oh, and she says there will be more to come.

Bookmark now, and visit and revisit during those long winter evenings!

I read I AM LEGEND by Richard Matheson and it scared me a lot. And that's just ink on newsprint. Cheap paperback newsprint at that!

I believe in what the host of Monster Chiller Horror Theatre Count Floyd says about scary movies. I can still remember his lame Transylvania accent, "Ooh. We gotta scary movie tonight, kids! Really scaaary -- but too scary."

I've never seen any of the movie versions of I AM LEGEND because I avoid most scary movies (exceptions: THE HAUNTING (1961 version), 28 DAYS LATER (I had to keep stopping the movie to calm down), and SHAWN OF THE DEAD). I'd rather watch something not too scary, thank you very much!

A film is in the works dedicated to Calving & Hobbes cartoonist Bill Watterson. While Mr. Watterson is not scheduled to participate in this documentary, the movie will be dedicated to him and his influence.

From what I was able to understand, the director will talk with other people (primarily cartoonists?) about C&H. Worth keeping an eye on, but anything could happen at this early stage.

New Yorker cartoonist, and editor of not just one, but two REJECTION COLLECTION books, Matthew Diffee is interviewed for Print Magazine by Emily Gordon.

Do most New Yorker cartoonists also try to sell elsewhere as well--Playboy, Reader's Digest? Who else buys single-panel cartoons? And what are the advantages and disadvantages of each? What would a PlayboyRejection Collection look like?

There is Playboy, which is, I understand, the next place to go with your stuff if it happens to be Playboy-type stuff…but they don’t pay as much as The New Yorker and I think they buy all rights while The New Yorker only buys first printing rights, and the copyright goes back to the cartoonist after 90 days. That is, if I understand the legalese of my contract properly. Also, cartoons in The New Yorker have a prominent standing, and respect whereas Playboy cartoons are not what you first think of when you think of the magazine. I’m told they have pictures of naked ladies in there.

As far as other mags, I’m not really sure, there may be people who send their rejects other places and some have probably found comfortable places in second-tier markets. Personally, I’m not organized enough for all that and also I never really wanted to be a cartoonist in the general sense, I just wanted to be a New Yorker cartoonist. Before I die though, it might be nice to get a cartoon or two in Cat Fancy.

Cartoonist David Gantz, a veteran comic book artist andwriter, newspaper strip cartoonist and graphic novelist, who had worked with many greats including Al Jaffee of Mad and Charles Schulz, passed away this morning. There is no further information at this time.

Dave attended the High School of Music & Art, the National Academy of Design and the University of Iowa.

Dave was a golden age comic book artist. His first job, back around 1940, was with Magazine Management, a company that later changed its name to Marvel. Dave drew "Mighty Mouse and "Patsy Walker," among other titles.

He continued as a comic book artist for the next couple of decades, producing mystery, horror and romance comics for Lev Gleason, St. John and Ziff Davis. He's also been credited with drawing the Classic Illustrated version of Huckleberry Finn.

Dave was a syndicated comic strip artist. He had a number of his own strips, notedly "Dudley D," which ran from 1961 to 1964 with the Herald Tribune Syndicate, and "Don Q," a strip that ran from 1975-80, syndicated by the New York Times Features Syndicate. Below is an interview from the JewishPub Web site:

Q: And you had a political cartoon strip for The New York Times.

Dave Gantz: My strip “Don Q” was syndicated by the New York Times Special Features Syndicate and ran from 1975 -1981. In its time, Don Q appeared in over 100 newspapers throughout the world, daily and on Sundays, but it never appeared actually appeared in The New York Times.

Q: Why not?

Dave Gantz: I was told that because The New York Times was distributed nationally, if the strip appeared in the Times it would hamper sales of other papers throughout the country. I remain skeptical about this explanation because I know that The New York Times published a comic strip in 1906 to compete with Pulitzer’s “World.” It was called “Roosevelt’s Bears” and it flopped after 6 months. The publisher, Adolf Ochs, vowed that the Times would never again publish a comic strip. Not even “Don Q.”

David Gantz also created freelance cartoons and illustrations for major publications including Boy's Life and Mad Magazine.

David Gantz wrote and illustrated over 75 children's books for Scholastic, Random House, Simon & Schuster and others. In addition to his commercial work, he was a fine artist, working in print making and sculpture. He exhibited in the US and Canada.

He won a 1997 National Cartoonists Society Newspaper Panel Division Award for "Gantz Glances."

"David was one of the kindest, intelligent, and creative people I've ever met. An artist, writer, and sculptor. His work included scores of books and whenever you spoke to him he was working on another project. He was a great inspiration to me and countless others. Another great loss."

Above: one of the many terrific samples of his comic strip work from Allan Holtz' Strippers Guide blog here (scroll down a bit).

Harvey Pekar talks about the Coventry neighborhood in Cleveland Heights, OH, where he lived during the 1970s and 80s in this interview from September 8, 2007.

I lived near there -- in the next suburb over -- in the late 1970s and 80s. I went to school at Shaker Hts. High, where I (of course) drew cartoons for the school paper. When I was 19, I ran the small theatre one summer at Cain Park for its summer festival. I used to watch old movies at the New Mayfield Repertory Theatre in Coventry (where I first saw Chaplin's THE CIRCUS & Hepburn & Tracy in BRINGING UP BABY), managed one of the Arabica coffee shops; not the AraFREAKa one in Coventry, but the AraSHEIKah one in Shaker Square. Yeah, that's what we called them. I met a girl, a very pretty redhead, that I would later marry, on my morning shift at Arabica.

Anyway, on to the video: this is sort of a video slide show, with Harvey off camera. The visuals pan and linger over photos of the area, ala a Ken Burns documentary. Listening to his reminiscences reminded me how much the world has changed since that time. Why go to the used record store -- Record Revolution -- if you can get your stuff off the Web. And usually for free! At one point, some photos from the 1930s are shown over Harvey talking about the 1970s. I don't know why this was done, but it kinda does seem like it was that long ago ... sometimes.

At the very end of the first part linked above (there's a total of 6 parts), he speaks about wanting to do something creative, even though he wasn't an actor and couldn't dance, etc. I admire him for deciding to go into comics and to keep working at it. Who knew that it would be successful?

Keep watching, even thru the end credits that pop up in these segments, since there's more talking and photos. Interesting, if you're a fan of his work -- even more interesting if you're a Clevelander.

KSU had a tragedy in January: one of its students, Daisaku Chiba, was knifed. The Tokyo police have not caught the suspect.

The faculty and students have gotten together and created a 20 page manga book about the boy, his life, and what happened on January 15, 2007, in the hopes of finding the person or persons who stabbed Daisaku Chiba ten times.

Above: the 20 page pamphlet. A thousand copies will be distributed around railway stations in Kyoto and other places.

Some interior detail.

“Chiba-kun met us through manga. Wouldn’t it give us some comfort if we could help arrest the killer with the power of manga?”

The week of June 11, 2007, I had the above cartoon in The Chronicle Review. I blogged about it here, and just found out that art -- or, rather, a cartoon -- imitated life. Here's a letter to the editor from the September 7, 2007 Chronicle Review:

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Know Your Cow

Mike Lynch thought he was inventing something funny when he drew a cartoon showing a cow's picture on the side of a milk carton, with the caption "Artisanal Milk" (Letters to the Editor, The Chronicle Review, June 15). But 15 years ago, taking up a restaurant reviewer's recommendation, a colleague and I dined at a restaurant in Edinburgh in which each cheese on the cheese cart came with a photograph, discussed with us by the waiter, of the cow from which the cheese's milk had come.

Who knew? And would the photo of a cud chewing heifer really be helpful in choosing the suitable cheese? Those crazy Scotsman!

OK, it's the Holiday season. Let's go watch an Oscar-award-winning adaptation of A CHRISTMAS CAROL, executive produced by Chuck Jones with the voice of Alastair Sim as Scrooge! For now, there's only one -- just one place -- to see this: YouTube.

It's not on DVD. Ands that's crummy. This show has some serious pedigree; the guy who brought us THE GRINCH (the cartoon, not the Jim Carrey monster) is the executive producer and it's directed by the animation director of WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT. I remember seeing it in 1971, and once or twice since then -- but only by chance. It's not a holiday TV tradition ala CHARLIE BROWN or those Rankin Bass puppet specials or the MISTER MAGOO special. Go figure!

YouTube's rules means a 28 minute vid has to be sliced up into smaller segments. Here are the links if you have the time to watch.

Miller was a New Yorker mag mainstay in the 60s and 70s. although he is still around and still producing work, the NYer mag is not buying much these days. These cartoons are a reminder of how good he is.

Above is the finished cartoon of mine as it appears in today's Wall Street Journal. This is a redraw of a cartoon that I submitted to the Journal a few months ago. I had to redraw it for them because my original was horizontal, whereas their space is square. They asked me to do the redraw. I hate redrawing. Hate it. Just am not interested in redrawing at all and hard to pep myself up to do it. Bored silly, I am. I guess that's why I had to put in the one kid sticking out his tongue (bottom left), which was not in the original version. I wanted to put something fresh in it.

Above is the original; the one I first mailed to them. I drew this in 2003, and I submitted it a couple of times a year to various markets. I don't know what made me draw those really big candy canes on Santa's chair!

I like the sentiment of the mother. Poor Santa! One of the occupational hazards of being him is having to listen to all these dang kids tell him their selfish wants all the time! What about him?!

Just got word that Al Scaduto passed away yesterday. He was 79. I have no more details at this time.

Al Scaduto was one of the nicest guys ever and I am glad to say he was a friend. He brought his love of singing to every get together of the Berndt Toast Gang, giving us all a chance to hear his lovely voice sing a couple minutes of opera.

He was generous with his time and stories of cartooning. He had been with King Features for over 60 years, soon after graduating from high school. He went from being an assistant, to actively taking over Jimmy Hatlo's feature THEY'LL DO IT EVERY TIME.

Al went to high school with Joe Giella, Sy Barry and Emilio Squeglio -- fellow cartoonists and fellow Berndt Toasters -- and they shared their friendship with all of us.

I will miss him very much, and this is all damn hard to take in.

UPDATED December 9, 2007:

Photo: Al Scaduto sings at a recent Berndt Toast meeting while girlfriend Claire kvells. ("Kvells" being a Yiddish word meaning to rejoice and be prideful.)

"'What I like most about being a cartoonist is starting with a fresh piece of paper and ending up with an idea,' he said. 'You're the writer, the actor and the director. I never thought about retiring. I enjoy what I do.'"

- Al Scaduto, from a February 11, 2007 Connecticut Post interview written by Dirk Perrefort.

A few more notes about Al Scaduto, perhaps the last, great "bigfoot" style cartoonist. A guy who knew Milt Gross, for heaven's sake!

These are all notes I made from the Berndt Toast Gang meetings. The BTG is the nickname for the National Cartoonists Society Long Island chapter. I was chapter chair for about five years.

+ + +

Back in 2005, Al told the Gang about The School of Industrial Arts reunion. SIA was founded by four young art teachers in 1936, who built desks from old orange crates and plywood. Even though it’s changed its name to the High School of Art and Design and moved from its former Civil War hospital building to a modern building on Second Avenue, it’s still referred to as SIA by those who graduated.

After the graduation ceremony from the High School of Industrial Arts in 1946, Al's father told him he would starve. That same year, Al started at King Features. By 1948, he became a full time assistant for Ben Dunn, but still found time for lots of other work. A multiple winner of the NCS Newspaper Panel Cartoon Award for the strip, he’s been soloing on They’ll Do It Every Time since 1989. Not bad for a boy from the Bronx!

+ + +

OK, we have a number of BT Gang traditions. The group has been meeting in one shape or from since 1966. For instance, every month we ask someone to bring in some samples of their work. Al Scaduto brought in dozens of originals from his years on They’ll Do It Every Time, Sick magazine, Little Iodine and so many, many illustrations. A Certain Major Syndicate surprised Al with a beautiful cake that was inscribed ”Congratulations Al from your Friends at King Features.” Al told us a little about his career. After the graduation ceremony from the High School of Industrial Arts in 1946, his dad told him he would starve. That same year, Al started at King. By 1948, he became a full time assistant for Ben Dunn, but still found time for lots of other work. A multiple winner of the NCS Newspaper Panel Cartoon Award for the strip, he’s been soloing on They’ll Do It Every Time since 1989. Not bad for a boy from the Bronx!

Photo: Children's book illustrator and current Chair Adrian Sinnott, Al Scaduto, Mike Lynch from a May 2007 get together.

And another Berndt toast tradition (actually, more of a running gag): Al Scaduto announces that he has brought a guest. This happens every time, and every time, he introduces the fellow sitting at the same table: “Jumpin'” Joe Giella. Then Al tells a disparaging joke at Joe’s expense. This is all forgivable since we all love Joe and the joke is an old joke. On those rare occasions when Al can’t make it, we all worry that there will be no one to introduce Joe.

+ + +

On April 24, 2006, legendary cartoonist Creig Flessel wrote a letter to me (on real paper, since Creig's not an Internet-kinda guy) about what he's up to

I keep busy doing watercolors and cartoons for local residents and our grandchildren. Tell Al Scaduto (my mentor) that I'm concentrating on my cartooning and he is my god.

+ + +

Al had this to say in the days after Jay Kennedy's death:

"Many years ago, when I was still working at Bob Dunn's office up at King Features on the 17th floor, Jay Kennedy was assigned the job of Comic Editor. He was always very 'low key' and a true gentlemen, with a tremendous knowledge of comics. I met him several times, either at cartoon conventions or at King Features affairs, as well as at NCS meetings and, of course, at Bunny Hoest's Annual Bash. Talking to him on the phone one day, he praised me by saying, 'Al, you do a handsome feature.' I'll truly miss this gentle man."

+ + +

Photo: a display of some of Al's originals on a display table at our January 25, 2007 get together

Al was just a very sweet guy. He would call me from time to time, to let me know how much he enjoyed the monthly BT meetings. He would drive from his home in Connecticut, pick up his girlfriend in Tarrytown and then drive out to Huntington, Long Island. When new or wannabe cartoonists would drop in, he would always spend time with them and ask them more questions than they would ask him.

He was an integral part of the Berndt Toast heart, and he will be missed.

Al, we were all kvelling when you were around. We'll miss the cartoons and the music and the man so dearly.

Correspondent Martha White writes that "year-end photocopied brag sheets and e-cards can never replace the original handwritten holiday note" in this article from the Christian Science Monitor, which includes the above card.

"My grandfather, a prolific letter writer – his updated "Letters of E.B. White" goes into paperback this month – managed a personalized, printed card in 1950 with his own verse and a drawing of his dachshund puppy descending steep stairs – a feat that occasionally resulted in a nose dive."

Tom Spurgeon serves up a mega-list of cartoon related items that are on the market in his Comics Reporter Holiday Shopping Guide. Not for the weak of wallet! And it's so big that, even after a minute or two with my high-speed cable connection, it's still loading the page.

In this entry, she honestly talks about the value of writing to please yourself, and what she learned from the late Jay Kennedy. Here's Sandra:

If there's one thing a cartoonist has to learn, it's that you have to write for yourself and that your work is not going to appeal to everyone. When I was working with my editor, Jay Kennedy during the development stage of my cartoon strip, I would fax my ideas to him and he would call me back with a critique of my work. He'd tell me why this strip worked and that one didn't and if he thought a particular strip was very funny. Every so often, I would catch myself writing my strips according to what I thought Jay would find funny. And you know what? ...not once did he tell me that the strip I wrote trying to appeal to his funny bone "was very funny". After a few times, it dawned on me that I should just write what Ithought was funny. If someone else found it funny, well...consider it gravy.

It's so hard to be a cartoonist because, despite the fact that there is a skill set that you can learn (learn to draw, learn to write), there is NOT a standard operating procedure to apply. A cartoonist has to offer something unique -- and, harder still, a cartoonist has to self-generate all this.

He talks about the new big 2 volume slipcased Don Martin collection of cartoons. I agree with him that it's a trip down memory lane -- and I also agree that a lot of cartoonists love Martin. So many of were MAD readers. I remember copying his characters when I was a wee lad.

Below is a sidebar from the article, which mentions a site I visit all too little. So here, via Mr. Garnick, are a few of the fantastic Don Martin sound effects as documented in Ed Norris and John Hett’s Don Martin Dictionary:

Ack gak gark! Man having a heart attack.

Blorf breedeet: Gagged man trying to talk.

Clink cloink bzzt: Putting money in Vend-O-Hair machine.

Grunch grunch gashlikt! Sculptor pressing thumbs into man’s head

Snap ploobadoof: Wonder Woman releasing her Amazon brassiere.

Spa-zunch: Superman swatting a fly on Lois’ back.

Spaloosh: Mafia informant dumped in river wearing cement shoes.

Stroinggoink: Olive Oyl falling down a sidewalk grating and being saved by her nose.

And it should be noted that Don Martin's original Signet paperback books (CAPTAIN KLUTZ, DON MARTIN FALLS 13 STORIES, etc.) are not included, despite the book being touted as a complete collection. I have heard that the book is all ready sold out, so I hope that this other material will be reprinted in 2008!

The sons of LITTLE LULU Creator Marjorie Henderson Buell donated her papers to Harvard last year. LULU paper ephemera will be on display at the Schlesinger Library thru March 29, 2008. More information, including the hours of the exhibit, is here. And, if you go there today, there's a reception this afternoon, between 4 and 6pm.

Here's a detailed list of what the Library has from the press release:

Cartoons and comic strips including eighteen of Buell’s earliest cartoons, among them the very first cartoon she drew before age seven; original “Little Lulu” and “The Boy Friend” sketches; and the entire collection of “Little Lulu” comic strips published from 1935 to 1969, appearing first in the Saturday Evening Post and then in national newspapers.

Personal correspondence with publishers, agents, fans and colleagues. Also included are fan magazines and Buell’s personal notebooks.

Official business documents including original contracts with Rand McNally, Milton Bradley and Paramount Pictures. Also included are royalty statements, licensing agreements and copyrights.

What's missing is the name of John Stanley, who, along with Irving Tripp, wrote and drew the bulk of the LULU comic book stories. I don't mean to diminish Ms. Buell's work, but it was Stanley who created the whole world of Lulu. I hope that there's an acknowledgment to his work in the exhibit.

Dark Horse Comics is reprinting the LITTLE LULU comic book series. Their 17th volume is below, with #18 (previewed at their site, click "Next Page >>" at the top right of the cover) coming out next month.

We were around the Thanksgiving table, talking cartoons. The one and only Stephanie Piro invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner with her friends and family. So, if there's more than one cartoonist at the table, then, of course, there is going to be cartoon talk.

"Here are the 4 best Thanksgiving cartoons," I announce, loudly and boorishly, letting everyone know that two of them are mine. "There's the one of the Mayflower sailing toward America with a big sign, 'Contents May Settle' on the back." I drew this up (see above) and then took it out of circulation when I saw that the cartoon had been done all ready! I saw it in an old collection of cartoons later, and I just did not know it had been done before. These things happen!

"And then there's one where a turkey is being X-rayed at the doctor's office and the doctor turkey is pointing to the patient turkey's solar plexus and saying, 'Well, Bob, here's you problem: your internal organs have been shrinkwrapped!'" I drew that one a couple of years ago, and it appeared in, of all things, a higher education journal. And I can't find a copy of the cartoon just now.

My wife wrote a poem for Christmas 2006. It's about us and the cats. I thought it was fun, and maybe a bit indulgent. To my delight, Stacy's poem got a lot of kind emails. Hard to believe that since then we've moved and gotten another cat.

For auld lang syne, here it is again:

The Great Ham CaperWords by Stacy LynchPictures by Mike Lynch

’Twas the week before ChristmasWhen Rufus and SamHatched a devious schemeTo make off with the ham!

The ham that would graceThe holiday table!Roo was the brains.Sam, wiry and able.

Who’d win this contestOf wits they were planning?Would Mike, Roo or Sam -Be last man or cat standing?

As Christmas day dawnedThe four of us waitedFor the ham to be servedWith breaths that were bated.

But before the main courseCould even be platedTheir plans took a turn.Some say it was fated...

What happened to stop themSo cold in their tracks?Why, cat-nip and husb-nip(in big canvas sacks)Was all that it tookTo stop their foul warring.And they rolled and purredAnd drooled on the flooring.And as long as I keptMy fingers and toesAway from a hubby and two catsIn nip’s throes -My own Christmas dayTurned out merry and calm;The ham moist and succulent,The champagne, a balm.

When they “awoke”,hostilities abated,We all ate some hamAnd went to bed sated.

And such peace we wishTo you and to yours:An end to fighting;An end to wars.